What I Know
by Band Gleek
Summary: Rachel hears that Sunshine Corazon is coming back to McKinley. With mixed emotions, she guiltily remembers one thing: she sent her to the crack house for a reason.


**What I Know**

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my cliché little plotline. If I owned Glee, Klaine would dominate screen time every episode and Chris Colfer would be my bff.

A/N: I've been reading Glee fanfiction practically religiously to keep me sane, but I have very little experience writing. Tell me if you think I should keep writing or just stick to reading, and if you have any other tips or constructive criticism for me, that'd be totally awesome.

Also, not everything follows the show exactly. A lot of the emotions reflect the characters more toward the beginning of season 2.

Summary: Rachel hears that Sunshine Corazon is coming back to McKinley. With mixed emotions, she guiltily remembers one thing: she sent her to the crack house for a reason.

Chapter 1

After a long day of dealing with ignorant peers and incompetent teachers, Rachel hopes that glee club will be able to relieve all of her pent up stress. It's not that she can't handle the stress—after all she is constantly working under the pressure to keep up her status as the most talented individual at school—it's just that everyone needs an emotional release every now and then. Glee is her only way to forget about everything else—to lose herself in music and not care about what anyone else says about her or past mistakes because everyone knows that she's the best. Even though not everyone likes her, at least they have to respect her.

As Rachel contemplates this, she enters a choir room full of excited glee members even more engaged in gossip than usual. She makes eye contact with Tina who is sitting contentedly on Mike's lap and feigns a smile as she feels the familiar ping of jealousy over their seemingly perfect relationship. However, as soon as Tina acknowledges Rachel, she immediately frowns and a hush falls over the glee club. Though hurt and confused, Rachel maintains her façade of superiority and asks what all the excitement about.

Everyone exchanges glances as they silently debate who should break the news to Rachel. Meanwhile, Rachel is expecting the worse, but one of the last things she expected to hear was the phrase that proceeded to leave Mike's lips, and not only because Mike rarely talked.

"Uhm…Rachel, Sunshine is coming back to McKinley…" Mike tried to look excited instead of giving in to the tension growing in the room.

"Great! She really is a fantastic singer. She'll be a fantastic addition to our club."

It wasn't a lie. In fact, Rachel knew the statement was all too true, and that was the problem. It's easy to accept people as people if you know you're better than them, because even if they're prettier or have more friends, you always know that you're more talented. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. Sunshine is a genuinely nice person and can sing with the passion of Mercedes, raw talent of Finn, effortlessness of Sam, and pure ambition of Rachel. She wasn't only the perfect addition to glee, she was the perfect person in general. Rachel wasn't sure she'd be able to handle that.

During Rachel's inner monologue, the rest of the club could sense Rachel's uneasiness about the subject, though few really cared. They thought it was ridiculous and heartless of Rachel to send sunshine to a crack house, and truly, Mike and Tina held a strong grudge against her for this action claiming that Asians had to stick up for each other.

Though Mike was doing his best to suppress any past resentment, Tina was not submitting to that same pleasantry.

"Yeah, Rachel, so if sending her to a crack house seems too 'been there done that', you could always have her visa revoked and send her back to the Philippines. We all know that you'd prefer it that way, anyway."

"Tina, I'm hurt by that accusation," Rachel replied, genuinely offended, "Sunshine and I had a heartwarming moment in the bathroom before nationals."

"I'm sure you did. It's always easier to bond with the competition when they go to a different school. Everything is going to be different when she's here at McKinley. Maybe she could be the team captain who actually cares about someone other than herself."

Rachel knew Tina meant every biting word. She wasn't in any mood to deal with her utter spite, but if she wanted to play it that way, then so be it.

"Good, we could use a few changes around here, like maybe some more rules in regards to public displays of affection. Last time I checked, making out in the middle of glee doesn't help the team either."

Tina glared at her. She knew she should say the second thing that came to her mind, but instead she said the first.

"Well at least I have someone! I know you're lonely but you don't have to be so obvious with your jealousy."

Rachel flinched. Her initial comment didn't exactly stem from jealousy. It was accurate and seemed appropriate for the situation, but now that she really looked at Tina, jealousy began to seep to the surface more than she's proud to admit. Mike sat with his arm around Tina, gently stroking her hair trying to calm her down. He, too, knew that Tina hit a nerve in Rachel and that it wasn't a necessary comment especially considering Rachel's past with relationships, but he still stayed by her side. Mike was not put off by Tina's outburst; instead you could see the pain in his eyes as if he himself was taking on the burden of Tina's negative emotions. It was that that made Rachel jealous—Mike's total dedication to her no matter if she was crying or screaming or whether he agreed with her wholeheartedly or didn't approve of her standpoint at all.

Her initial instinct was to insult Tina's vocal abilities in order to hit the same nerve that Tina had hit in her, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Rachel truly cared about the team despite all the accusations of her selfishness, and any comment toward Tina's talents would just make the rest of the club dislike her more, especially after the "Night of Neglect" debacle.

At that moment Mr. Shue entered the choir room, for which Rachel was truly grateful.

"Alright, so with nationals behind us, we can finally get some housekeeping done…" Mr. Shue rambled on about their need for more organization throughout the year so they wouldn't be so rushed come competition season next year.

Rachel sat quietly next to Kurt who gave her a sideways glace void of any anger and full of what Rachel interpreted as empathy. Making a mental note to call him later, Rachel became lost in her own thoughts. She successfully suppressed Tina's comments but was unsuccessful in overcoming thoughts of a year of glee fighting for the female lead against an adorable and strong-willed minority. Was this how everyone felt about her? No wonder the others girls weren't exactly her best friends.


End file.
